Hint: check out the parameters for advanced search. The word I chose, perturbations, had an overwhelmingly large number of anagrams, so I first generated the word list — simply a list of all the words that can be generated from Perturbations. There were over 1400 of them. Then I picked a few, and went back to the advanced options, inserting the word I picked and generating all the anagrams with that word.

Here are some of the anagrams I liked — some of them made it into my poem:

Welcome to Focus on Form. For the next three weeks, each of us Muselings will be writing a poem in the same form and sharing it here on the blog.

Aragman

Aragman (pronounced “a rag man”) is a fairly new form, created by Sal Buttaci in 2005. All poetry forms have to start somewhere! I’m not sure where I first heard about this style, but the notes for it have been sitting in my poetry folder for years now. I figured this would be an ideal time to pull it out and try something new.

Rules

The poem consists of six-line stanzas, ending with a stand alone line.

The concept centers around anagrams (“aragman” is, in fact, an anagram of “anagram”). Here are the rules, as set by Buttaci:

First of all, begin with a word or two, perhaps your first name or first and last name. Settle on a word or two with not too many letters.

Type in your word and click on “Get Anagrams.” Instantly, you will be provided with all the words that use the letters of your chosen word.

Copy/paste all the words that are derived from your chosen word and carry it over to your Microsoft Word screen, give the file a name, and save it.

Now take a look at each of the anagrams and decide on a few for your aragman. You will need three for each six-line stanza. From the list select those anagrams that can be woven into your poem.

In each stanza, odd-numbered lines 1, 3, and 5 are different anagrams from your list. If it’s possible, restrict each anagram on these lines to the same number of syllables. Make these anagram lines darker than the others. Even-numbered lines 2, 4, and 6 are completions of corresponding anagram lines 1, 3, and 5. If possible, let these completion lines also conform to the same number of syllables.

The poem’s last line stands alone, after the stanzas, and it is one more anagram line.

The trick for this is finding a good phrase or word that will produce enough workable anagrams. Have fun trying different word combinations until you find something you like.

Examples

Here are a few stanzas from Buttaci’s original poem, based off his first name:

SENDING SALVATORE SOME ANAGRAMS

A slaver to
the labor of wordplayA travel so
vicariously thrillingA vast lore
from which to dabble

Altas over
a hefting of strong wordsA rave slot
machine to pull down poemsArea volts
zapped in poetic lines

Tear salvo
from the broken-heartedTears oval
and wet flow down facesAlas, voter!
it’s time to add your name to

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. . . from MA, FL, OH, UT, OR, and WA State, met in an online writers conference in Oct. 2008, and have never met in person

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